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To prove it’s ready for IPO,Facebook seeks ‘tentpole’ deals

first meeting of Facebook’s “client
council,” which consists of representatives from six big brands,
including Coca-Cola and Walmart,
along with a half-dozen major
agency-holding groups.

But the task isn’t quite that simple: As more marketers consider
committing big dollars to the social-networking giant, Facebook must
address concerns ranging from a
lack of ROI metrics to its constant
change, which can catch users and
clients off-guard.

The challenge for Facebook is
“trying to innovate from a product
perspective and at the same time
establish some consistency from a
commercial standpoint,” said Nigel
Morris, CEO of Aegis Media
Americas, which is part of the client
council.

The best example of a tentpole
deal to date is with Diageo (a client
council member), whose commitment is worth more than $10 million and promises “to provide metrics to help Diageo define ROI and
performance across its priority
brands.” Facebook is also offering a
sneak peek at new features and ad
products it’s testing to some advertisers that have committed to yearlong deals.

With special attention and programs, Facebook is looking to
become the first place brands go to
spend their online ad dollars, though
it’s also notable that older media
companies such as Google, Yahoo
and Microsoft have all convened
similar advertising-client councils.

According to Carolyn Everson,VP-global ad sales, the company isbuilding out its global agency teamand has designated liaisons dedicat-ed to overseeing the relationshipwith Omnicom, WPP and Aegis.It’s also hiring for Publicis,Interpublic and Havas and growingits global account team to matchwith global companies that have anappetite for emerging markets.“Agencies areresponsible forover half of adspend globally,”she said. “Atcore we believewe must investtime andresources withagencies at allstages, through creative to execu-tion of a media campaign.”To that end Facebook hasunveiled a premium ad unit gearedtoward big brands already spendingmillions every year on Facebookads and a revamped measure-ment—or “Insights”—tooldesigned to provide better meas-urement. It also spent the week pre-senting an array of case studies forcampaigns on fan pages frombrands such as Levi’s, Burberry andAmerican Express.

“The key for Facebook is going to
be demonstrating that it has solid
revenue streams that are capable
of supporting this huge valuation
that the company has.”

While she thinks user experience is still paramount at Facebook,
eMarketer principal analyst Debra
Aho Williamson said Facebook has
delivered on what marketers have
been asking for in one especially
key area: more social ads. An
expensive premium ad offering
announced last week, for example,
is essentially a souped-up version of
sponsored stories, adding the social
context of a user’s friends’ likes and
comments to a piece of a branded
content that’s then served in the
premium slot.

“The key for Facebook is going
to be demonstrating that it has solid
revenue streams that are capable of
supporting this huge valuation that
the company has,” she said.

Facebook’s valuation has
recently been charted as high as
$100 billion.

Mounting new pressures cited ingrowing number of CEO changes

MEDIA AGENCY CEOS from p. 4

to your children,” said MichaelKassan, CEO and founder of MediaLink and a onetime media agencychief himself. “That’s not the caseanymore.”Mr. Doyle, who up until recent-ly sat atop MEC North America, isthe latest chief to exit his role.During the announcement of hisleaving, Mr. Doyle told Ad Agethat when he stepped into the CEOrole in the first quarter of 2007, theagency had clear global objectives.“My role was much more aboutexecuting that vision,” he said.“Now I think it’s time to set a newvision.”It’s this new vision that keepsmany of today’s media-agencyleaders awake at night, dreamingup ways to innovate and growbusiness possibilities in a muchmore integrated- and digital-mediaworld—and finding ways to maketheir offerings about more thanjust scale and price.

“It’s no longer a world about
buying upfronts,” said June
Blockin, partner at Juel Consulting.

LEEDOYLE:

Former CEO of MEC North America is the
latest media agency CEO to exit.

“We’re seeing an ongoing shifttoward this new digital space andthe CEOs are under pressure froma top-line standpoint and from amargins standpoint.”As a result, agencies are lookingfor “hybrid talent” CEOs withexperience outside the traditionalmedia agency. They want someonewho can bring in new data and dig-ital capabilities and ideas, and indoing so create new opportunitiesfor employees in an effort to helpcurb the senior-level churn. “It’s aproblem that appears to be particu-larly pronounced in media agen-cies,” she said. “What is driving it isa prevailing feeling that there is lit-tle room for advancement, and thatno one is looking out for them.”In Ms. Blockin’s estimation, inthe new environment, media agen-cies are working harder to evolve,protect and grow their strategicplanning and digital business mod-els. They’re facing new competitionfrom other types of agencies andmedia companies which are deal-ing with the marketers directly andhiring strategic thought leadersfrom media agencies. Clients,working with procurement to cutcosts, are doing a lot of the digitalwork themselves, she noted.